Page 61 - Education World September 2021

Wei Ho, associate professor of mathematics at the Uni-
versity of Michigan is equally enthusiastic, if less poetic.
Hagoromo Fulltouch Chalk, she believes, “writes much
more smoothly than any other chalk I have used. I don’t
have to think about pressing too softly — some chalk won’t
show up without enough pressure — or pressing too hard
or squeaking… With other brands, usually after a lecture,
my hands — and clothes — are covered in chalk.” It is “es-
pecially useful for giving lectures where there’s more time
pressure, so you don’t want to waste time and energy think-
ing about your chalk as you are writing”.
Not all mathematicians, Prof. Bayer admits, care about
chalk. Yet it was undoubtedly a bleak day when in October
2014, after 82 years of production, Takayasu Watanabe,
the last president of Hagoromo Stationery, decided to close Sacked rector Melih Bulu: turning point?
down the company. He cited both his own poor health and
“an operating loss” resulting from a decline in sales from a Prof. Bulu’s outside appointment — under a 2018 law
peak of 90 million sticks a year to half that level. that allows president Recep Tayyip Erdogan to choose rec-
However, he expressed confidence that production tors — sparked student and faculty protests at Bogazici, a
would continue, since he had sold the machines for making highly selective institution with a strong tradition of demo-
and moulding the chalk to a local stationery manufacturer cratically picking its leaders from within.
and a Korean importer named Sejongmall, and he had plans But on July 14, Prof. Bulu was dismissed by the president
“to visit South Korea and teach my know-how”. without explanation. “We have forced them to take a step
Many mathematicians aren’t convinced by his reassur- back,” says Feyzi Ercin, a former Bogazici music lecturer
ances and responded instantly to what one described as a and lawyer who provided legal advice to arrested students
“chalk apocalypse”. “I read in the middle of the night on so- during the protests.
cial media that the Japanese company had closed. I still had Turkey’s increasingly autocratic government has
a reasonable stockpile, but I went on Amazon and bought squeezed institutional autonomy since 2016 with wide-
every remaining box for sale in the United States,” recalls spread arrests and dismissals of scholars following the
Prof. Bayer. failed coup. Last year, a former ruling party MP was ap-
Two further developments have cast new light on this pointed head of Ankara University, while dozens of rectors
hoarding behaviour. Despite teething problems with ma- tweet pro-government messages, according to an analysis
chinery, Sejongmall is indeed manufacturing the chalk conducted last year. But Bogazici was seen as Turkey’s “last
again, which means that it is easily available on Amazon. fortress” against this political encroachment, explains Odul
Prof. Bayer suspects “one can probably tell the two versions Bozkurt, lecturer in international human resource manage-
of Hagoromo chalk apart, but they are close, and either is ment at the University of Sussex, and a Bogazici alumnus.
vastly better than most alternatives”. Prof. Bulu’s appointment triggered the creation of alum-
But with the spread of the Covid pandemic, the shift to ni action groups in the UK, US, Sweden, Spain, Germany
online teaching has called into question the wisdom of those and Belgium. “I have never seen this level of resilience and
who thought they were showing great foresight in stockpil- imagination in mobilising an entire community,” she adds.
ing mathematical chalk. It is unclear exactly what President Erdogan will do next.
“To be honest,” says Dr. Ho, “I haven’t been at a chalk- It is possible that he “wants a rector that would mediate
board since March 2020.” these protests and calm the campus, so this may be a politi-
cal move with election concerns”, says Mine Eder, a profes-
TURKEY sor of political economy at Bogazici.
Minor victory hopes an even harder line against the university. Pro tem rector
But several campaigners fear the government will take
ACADEMICS IN TURKEY SAY THEY HAVE won a Naci Inci, a physics professor has already dismissed sev-
rare victory for university autonomy after a politi- eral opposition figures from their roles. Prof. Ercin says he
cally appointed rector was dismissed following six found out in July end that his course on film music had been
months of protest. The sacking of Melih Bulu, a former rul- cancelled after eight years of lecturing. The decision “had
ing party candidate appointed at Bogazici University by the everything to do with the protests,” he says.
president in January, they hope, could be a turning point
in the fight for academic freedom, which has come under (Excerpted and adapted from The Economist and
intense pressure since a failed coup attempt in 2016. Times Higher Education)

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